"It is certainly our hope that this will turn into the next Legacy Business Park," said KDC CEO Steve Van Amburgh. "We feel the development will be a very exciting and well-designed environment. It will be an attractive mixed-use development."

KDC will finish the acquisition of the 186-acres of land at North Central Expressway and the President George Bush Turnpike in Richardson by the end of the year, he said. The plan is to start on the project immediately.

The initial phase of infrastructure and utilities will get under way at the beginning of the year, he said.

"We are in conversations with companies, multifamily groups and retail groups," Van Amburgh said. "We are not going to delay. We will start immediately."

We are not commenting on any tenants, but I'll tell you that we have four different groups that are looking at an excess of 2.5 million square feet. They vary in size, but they are all possible office tenants.

Why are companies looking at new space when there's still some existing office vacancy in Richardson?

There are very few large contiguous blocks of space available and the tenants that we are talking to need large blocks of space. The number two reason is that all of these tenants are interested in close proximity to the rail and transit-oriented (development) is very important to them. It's all about a live-work-play environment.

How long have you been working on this deal?

This has been in the works for almost 12 months.

Have you hired an architect for the project yet?

We are in the middle of hiring an architect. Check back next week.

When are you set to deliver the first phase of the project?

The first phase will probably be delivered in 2013. We have a number of potential tenants that we are speaking with and those discussions will unfold in the next 90 days. We assume construction would start in early to mid-2013 and we would have an awful lot of development onsite in the next 24 months to 36 months.

Any market projections for 2013?

We see a lot of new projects, expansions and consolidations. Companies are bringing their people together. We will work hard to earn our fair share of the work.